Four Kinds of Queen Cells in a March Inspection
On 8 March a beekeeper inspects six 10-frame Langstroth colonies near Jhansi and finds four different situations. Colony A has 9 freshly sealed queen cells along the lower edges of three combs; the queen is seen, but no eggs or very young larvae are present anywhere, the brood area has shrunk, and the outer combs are full of drone brood. Colony B has 6 sealed cells in the same lower-edge position, but also eggs and 1–2 day-old larvae on the central combs; the queen is present and still laying. Colony C has a single sealed cell in the middle of a comb, a patchy brood pattern with many empty cells, and an old queen with a worn, hairless thorax. Colony D has no queen, no eggs and no larvae, and 15 cells built on worker cells on three combs. Colony E is a 4-frame weak colony with no cells. Colony F is boiling over with bees at 6 p.m. and covers all 10 frames. The beekeeper wants both a sunflower honey crop in April and an increase of at least 6 colonies before the monsoon.
1. Classify the queen-cell situations in colonies A, B, C and D, and give the biological evidence for each classification.
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A - swarm preparation, at the point of swarming. Cells are along the lower comb edges (the swarm position), they are already sealed, the queen has stopped laying (no eggs, no young larvae), brood area has shrunk and drone brood dominates. The colony has crowded itself and is waiting only for the cells to mature. Swarming is imminent, likely within 24–72 hours.
B - swarm preparation, earlier stage. Same cell position, but eggs and young larvae are still present, so the queen is still laying: the colony has started but not completed swarming preparations. There is still a week or more before the swarm issues.
C - supersedure. One or two cells on the face of the comb, not the lower edge, together with a patchy brood pattern and an old queen with worn wings and a hairless thorax. The workers are replacing a failing queen while she is still present. Supersedure does not normally produce a swarm.
D - emergency queen rearing. No queen, no eggs, no larvae except the older worker brood from which the 15 cells were built on worker-sized cells. This is the response to sudden queen loss, not to crowding.
The diagnostic logic is: position of the cells + presence or absence of eggs/brood + condition of the queen. Larvae of the right age are the trigger; the comb position tells you which behaviour was triggered.
2. State what you would do with colonies A, B and C, and explain why simply destroying all queen cells is not a solution.
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Colony A (sealed cells, queen stopped laying): the swarm could leave today. Inspect early morning, find and cage the queen, then either (i) make an artificial swarm - put the queen with two combs of brood and adhering bees into a new box on the old stand, and leave the parent colony with the field bees and one open cell; or (ii) if the cells are to be used, cut out 3–4 good cells and destroy the rest, and give the parent colony room by adding a super and removing drone comb. Do not leave 9 sealed cells: the first virgin out will destroy the others or the colony will cast.
Colony B (cells plus eggs): there is time. Add a super or an empty box to relieve crowding, remove the sealed cells and leave one open cell if an increase is wanted, or cage the queen and destroy all cells if not.
Colony C (supersedure): leave the cell alone. The colony has decided its queen is failing; removing the cell usually produces a queenless colony a few weeks later. Mark the cell date and check in 16 days that a mated queen is laying.
Why destroying all cells fails: the trigger - crowding, an ageing queen, or queenlessness - remains. Workers will rebuild cells within days, often from older larvae, producing poor queens, and repeated cell destruction delays swarming without preventing it. It treats the symptom, not the cause; the answer to swarming is space, young queens and timely splits.
3. Using colonies D, E and F, how would you actually obtain the 6-colony increase while keeping a sunflower honey crop?
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Colony D is queenless and has no brood younger than the emergency cells can use - but those 15 cells are already started on worker cells, so the resulting queens will be small and poorly fed. Better: destroy the cells, give D one frame of eggs and young larvae from healthy F, and let it raise 3–4 selected cells; or give it a sealed ripe cell from colony A (a cell from swarm preparations is well provisioned). Keep D out of honey production this season and feed it.
Colony E (4 frames) cannot be split - it has barely enough bees to cover brood. Strengthen it: give it a frame of sealed brood from F, feed sugar syrup, and use it as a reserve. Splitting a colony smaller than 6–7 frames produces two non-viable units.
Colony F (10 frames covered, strong) is the only donor suitable for increase before the flow. Take 2–3 splits of 2 combs of brood plus adhering bees and a queen cell from A or B, each with a fresh mated queen or ripe cell, and move the splits at least 2 km away so the field bees do not drift back. Remove the parent queen from one split only if you can obtain a mated queen; otherwise use ripe cells and accept a 3-week brood gap.
Timing for the sunflower flow: splits made on 8–10 March will have laying queens by early April; feed them syrup and keep them at 6–7 frames so they can also store surplus. Keep the two strongest units (F and one split) as honey producers and accept that the increase colonies will contribute little honey this season - an increase and a full crop in the same month are a trade-off, not a free gain.